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The largest nuclear power plant in Europe has been connected to diesel generators for a month. It’s as encouraging as it sounds.

November 19, 2025 by usatoday24

Europe is once again walking a nuclear tightrope. After more than three years of war, the largest atomic plant on the continent —the Ukrainian Zaporizhia plant— has gone from being an industrial symbol to becoming at a point of friction capable of triggering an emergency of continental reach. In parallel, other plants in the country operate at reduced power after attacks on the electrical grid. The situation is so unstable that the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, recently traveled to Kaliningrad, Russia, for emergency talks with the head of Rosatom, Alexey Likhachev, according to the Anadolu agency. It is a gesture that reflects the extent to which the risk is real. An attack that left two centers at minimum. According to a statement from the IAEAa military attack during the night of November 7 damaged an electrical substation critical to nuclear security. This incident left the Khmelnitsky and Rivne plants disconnected from one of their two 750 kilovolt lines and forced the electricity operator to order a power reduction in several of its reactors. Ten days later, one of the lines was still out of service and three reactors continued to operate at limited power. The agency emphasizes that these substations are essential nodes of the network: they allow the voltage levels that feed the security and cooling systems to be transformed and maintained. Without them, plants cannot guarantee safe operation. One month depending on diesel generators. The situation in Zaporizhzhia is even more critical. According to an opinion column by Najmedin Meshkati, professor of engineering and international relations published in the Financial Timesthe plant spent a full month without outside power after its two main lines were cut. During that time it survived solely on diesel generators, a resource that the industry considers strictly temporary: they are designed to run for around 24 hours, not for weeks. Technicians were only able to repair the lines under the protection of localized ceasefires negotiated by the IAEA, according to NucNet. Even so, one of the two restored lines was disconnected again on November 14 due to the activation of a protection system. Grossi summed it up like this: “The electrical situation at the plant remains extremely fragile.” The condition for a shut down reactor to remain safe. Although Zaporizhzhia’s six reactors have been on cold shutdown for more than three years, the plant requires a constant three to four megawatts to maintain cooling pumps and other essential systems, according to Meshkati. The professor emphasizes that even huge emergency batteries require external electricity to stay charged. It is a vicious circle: without the electrical grid, batteries are used, but without external electricity, these batteries cannot be recharged and, without both, the cooling systems fail. And without cooling the risk of nuclear fuel melting or overheating increases. The University of Southern California professor warns that this scenario reproduces the conditions that transformed Fukushima into a global disaster: “What turned an earthquake into a catastrophe was the total failure of the electrical system.” And he adds that, unlike 2011 in Japan, this time the risk comes from deliberate human action. A network reduced to its minimum expression. Before the war, according to the Kyiv Independentthe Zaporizhia plant was connected through ten power lines. Today it only has one or two operations and has lost all connection ten times since the beginning of the invasion. The IAEA itself has described the situation power plant as “extremely precarious” and “clearly not sustainable” when it depends for long periods on diesel generators. Short and medium term risks. The notices in the last report on Ukraine by the IAEA point in the same direction: the main danger is not a Chernobyl-type explosion, but a prolonged cooling failure. This scenario could cause overheating of the reactors in cold shutdown, damage to the spent fuel pools and a possible localized or regional radioactive release, with the consequent need to create an exclusion zone in the heart of agricultural Europe. For its part, according to Meshkatiadds two other relevant elements. On the one hand, it points out that a serious accident will exceed the economic impact of Fukushima, estimated at about $500 billion. An incident of that magnitude would affect agriculture, transport, supply chains and the European insurance market. On the other hand, he maintains that if Russia manages to consolidate the precedent that an occupying army can take control of a nuclear power plant and connect it to its own network, the global nuclear security architecture would be seriously compromised. It would be a precedent without equivalent since the creation of international standards that regulate the civil use of atomic energy. Is there a meeting point? The IAEA has acted as an intermediary between Moscow and kyiv on multiple occasions. According to the Anadolu agencyGrossi traveled to Kaliningrad to meet with Likhachev, director of Rosatom, in order to directly discuss the situation in Zaporizhzhia and the minimum conditions to guarantee nuclear safety. At the same time, the agency is trying to technically shore up the Ukrainian electrical system. According to their own statementshas so far coordinated 174 deliveries of essential equipment – switches, electrical cabinets, radiation monitoring stations, vehicles and computer equipment – worth more than 20.5 million euros, intended to sustain nuclear security in Ukraine during the war. Nuclear security supported by fragile cables Europe breathes thanks to a handful of cables repaired under fire and diesel generators that have already proven to be well beyond their limits. As the Financial Times explainsthe continent’s security depends on electricity continuing to arrive and on the parties respecting the fragile ceasefires needed to repair lines when they go down. Grossi summed it up with a mix of relief and alarm after the restoration of one of the lines: “It is a good day for nuclear security, although the situation remains highly precarious.” And the precarious thing, in this case, is that a new attack, a mechanical failure or a downed line is enough to bring … Read more

When they sold us generative “Artificial Intelligence” we did not know that it was going to be artificial and generative but not “intelligent”

November 19, 2025 by usatoday24

A few months ago, a group of Spanish researchers thought of putting an AI chatbot to the test with a curious test. They uploaded an image of an analog clock to the chatbot and asked the AI a simple “What time is it on that clock?” The AI failed disturbingly. Machine, can you tell me the time? Researchers from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, the University of Valladolid and the Politecnico de Milano signed a month ago a study in which they wanted to evaluate how intelligent the artificial intelligence of those models was. To do this, they built a large set of synthetic images of analog clocks—available in Hugging Face— in which 43,000 different hours were shown. Before fine-tuning their behavior, the AI models consistently failed when trying to tell the time. After the adjustment the behavior was much better, but still imperfect. That should not happen with such a “simple” issue for humans. disastrous result. From there they asked four generative AI models what time those images of those analog clocks showed. None of them managed to tell the time accurately. That group of models was made up of GPT-4o, Gemma3-12B, LlaMa3.2-11B and QwenVL-2.5-7B, and all of them had serious problems “reading” the time and differentiating, for example, the hands or the angle and direction of those hands in relation to the numbers marked on the watch. Fine tuning to improve. After these first tests, the group of researchers managed to significantly improve the behavior of these models after performing fine tuning: they trained them with 5,000 additional images from that data set and then re-evaluated the behavior of the models. However, the models again failed consistently when tested with a different set of images of analog clocks. The conclusion was clear. They don’t know how to generalize. What they discovered with this test was confirmation of what we have been observing from the beginning with AI models: they are good at recognizing data that they are familiar with (memorized), but they often fail in scenarios that they have never faced and that are not part of their training sets. Or what is the same: they were incapable of generalizing. Dalí enters the scene. To try to find out the causes of these failures, the researchers created new sets of images in which, for example, they used the Dalí’s famous distorted clocksor those that included arrows at the end of the hands. Humans are able to tell time on analog clocks even if they are distorted, but for AI models that was a huge problem. If they do this with watches, imagine with medical analysis. The danger of these conclusions is that they reignite the debate about whether generative AI models are indeed artificial and generative, but not very intelligent. If they have these difficulties in identifying the hands or their orientations, things are dangerous if what the models have to analyze are medical images or, for example, real-time images of an autonomous car driving through a city. AIs are stupid. Although it is true that generative AI models are fantastic as aids in various scenarios such as programming, the reality is that what they do is “regurgitate” responses that are already part of their training data. As Thomas Wolf, Chief Science Officer of Hugging Face, explained, a generative AI “will never ask questions that no one had thought of or that no one had dared to ask.” Although thanks to their enormous memory and training they can recover a multitude of data and present it in useful ways, finding solutions to problems for which they have not been trained is very complicated. For experts like Yann LeCun, the reality is clear: generative AI it’s very stupid and, furthermore, a dead end. Source: clocks.brianmoore.com AI doesn’t draw watches very well either. Added to the experiment of these researchers is another small test that once again calls into question the capacity of generative AI. It involves asking different models to create the code that allows an analog clock to be displayed with the current time. A designer named Brian Moore wanted to share the result of several AI models and the truth is that the result obtained in most of them is terrible, although others like Kimi K2 achieve a good result. We have tested with the recent Grok 4.1 and GPT-5.1. After a little insistence, Grok 4.1 has drawn the perfect clock and it works. With GPT-5.1 there has been no way, at least in our tests. A worrying reality. This inability to solve tasks that seem simple certainly means that these models are not in a good place. It is true that a good prompt can help resolve some of these limitations, but what is becoming increasingly evident is that AI models continue to make mistakes despite the passage of time. The theoretical revolution of this technology precisely needs to eradicate them, and it does not seem that we are on the way to achieving it. The models improve, yes, but not enough for us to trust them 100%. Image | Yaniv Knobel In Xataka | As if there weren’t enough AI companies, Jeff Bezos has just returned from the shadows to build another one, according to the NYT

The emir of Qatar travels in a private jet so big it helped Sardinia airport upgrade

November 19, 2025 by usatoday24

In 2021, the airport Olbia Costa Smeralda In Sardinia, it undertook work to expand its runway to be able to receive long-distance flights, thus opening the door for international airlines to bring a greater volume of tourists to the island. However, the inauguration of this work was somewhat special. As and how did he count Luxury Launchesthe ceremony inauguration of the new track It starred the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, but he did not do so by unveiling any commemorative plaque or cutting any ribbon. He did it bravely: landing his huge private jeteither. Who said fear? A private jet so big that it changes the category of the airport In the summer of 2021, the works on the Sardinian airport had just been completed. In an attempt to escape the scorching heat of Doha, the emir wanted to spend a few days of relax in the Mediterranean. Neither quick nor lazy, the president gave the order to embark to his crowded entourage who usually accompanies him on his private plane, and they headed to Sardinia. The Boeing 747-8, in addition to being one of the largest airplanes in the worldis the plane that Qatar Amiri Flight, the airline owned by the Qatari emirate, has assigned as a private plane for the top leader of the country. The emir’s plane, valued at around 370 million euros, has impressive dimensions, being 76 meters long, more than 68 meters wide and weighing close to 450 tons at takeoff. Qatar Boeing 747-8 Amiri Flight. The “private jet” of the emir of Qatar Olbia airport was already a key point due to its capacity to move almost 1.8 million passengers in 2008, operating mainly with domestic flights and some destinations in Europe. The infrastructure had just been expanded, lengthening the main runway by about 300 meters to a length of 2,740 meters, the safety zones were expanded and the taxiway was improved, which speeds up the approach to and departure from the runway. In principle, there would be no problem for the huge private jet to land. There was only one small detail: the track had not been tested previously and, in fact, It wasn’t even approved so that planes the size of the emir’s 747-8 could land there. Unimportant details. Olbia Costa Smeralda airport in Sardinia after its expansion As the airlines had not yet scheduled any long-haul international routes from that airport, the airport authorities took advantage of the visit of your important tourist to officially certify the ability to operate this type of flights that use aircraft such as the Boeing 747, Boeing 777, the Airbus A330, the Airbus A340. If the emir could land with your private jet loaded with his entourage, international tourists could too. The operation was carried out without incident, confirming that both the length and the paving of the runway were adequate to support the operations of these air giants. According what was published through the local environment The New Sardegnathanks to the inaugural maneuver of the private jet of the Emir of Qatar, in November of that same year the first flights connecting Sardinia with Los Angeles, China and Singapore with direct flights were inaugurated. The emir of Qatar: main interested party Even if all precautions had been taken during the landing operation, being the first aircraft of its kind to use the runway always entails some risks. However, the emir of Qatar was especially interested in international planes being able to land on that runway. full of tourists. The reason is easy to guess. The most prestigious hotels, marinas and resorts on the Emerald Coast belong to Emerald Holdingwholly controlled by the Qatar Investment Authority. Hotel Cala Di Volpe in Sardinia. One of the five-star hotels of the Emir of Qatar We are talking about a series of five-star hotels that offer luxury stays on the shores of the Mediterranean for clients as select as the Emir of Qatar. Therefore, it is not strange that the highest representative of this hospitality empire opens the way for millionaires from all over the world to use the new runway to land with their private jets or arrive accommodated in the seats business of international airlines. In Xataka | A single millionaire spent the equivalent of 10,000 tourists on his luxury vacation in Mallorca: the Emir of Qatar Image | Wikimedia Commons (Khamenei.ir, Mehmet Mustafa Celik, John Murphy), Marriott

SpaceX changed the space economy. Now he wants to do the same with the cost of satellites

November 19, 2025 by usatoday24

The cost of launching cargo into space was, for years, one of the great limits of the aerospace industry. LaNASA documents in several works, including the analyzes of Harry W. Jonesthat during the last decades of the 20th century many pitchers moved in a typical range of between 10,000 and more than 20,000 dollars per kilowith an average cost of around $18,500/kg in low orbit, with the space shuttle far above due to its complexity and operating expense. It was not just the price of the launch systems, but of a model based on disposable components, manual processes and highly specialized operations. The situation remained stable for decades, until SpaceX decided to rethink how the economics of orbital launch should work. Instead of assuming these costs as inevitable, the company opted to reuse stages, optimize processes and manufacture its own engines and systems from scratch. This combination allowed the price per kilo to be reduced to unprecedented levels, although the change did not occur immediately. What is relevant is that, for the first time, a private actor demonstrated that launches could be much cheaper and that price did not have to be a structural barrier for the industry. When launch is no longer the limit, attention shifts to satellites The resulting prices began to change behavior in the sector. With Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, the cost per kilo became in the range of 3,000 to 1,500 dollars, according to NASA calculations based on catalog prices. These figures not only mark a reduction, but a turning point: for the first time, companies, institutions and even governments could rethink the design of missions knowing that launch was no longer the main economic barrier. From there a question arose that until then had no answer: if the trip had been made cheaper, what would happen to what was sent into space? The traditional satellite model was built on the idea of optimizing each unit. It was not important to produce many, but to produce one that could operate for years, with high capacity and low probability of failure. Manufacturers and operators were investing in complex systems, with long development cycles, exhaustive testing and specialized structures to fulfill specific and prolonged missions. This strategy responded to an environment in which launch was so costly and infrequent that it was more profitable to prioritize reliability and durability than to think about scalability or rapid replenishment. One of the first companies to help change this approach was OneWeb, that introduced a manufacturing model designed for scale. Instead of ordering each satellite as an individual piece, the company designed a common architecture and partnered with Airbus to produce repeatable unitswith standardized processes and shorter manufacturing times. The plant installed in Florida in 2019 was presented as the first factory of satellite serial production on a large scale, with two lines capable of removing up to two units a day. It was not about building a better satellite, but about building many. SpaceX took the satellite constellation idea and turned it into its own industrial system. With Starlink, it not only replicated the use of mass-produced satellites, but also linked that production to its launch capacity with Falcon 9, operated by the company itself. This integration allowed the deployment to be accelerated without depending on external release windows or commercial suppliers. The constellation began to grow at an unprecedented rate and, in a few years, it vastly surpassed any other similar project in number and pace. The difference was not only in manufacturing satellites, but in being able to launch them at will. Although OneWeb was one of the first players to apply industrial logic to satellite manufacturing, its constellation has grown at a very different pace than Starlink. At the end of 2025, OneWeb has around 648 satellites in orbit, while SpaceX exceeds 8,000 operational satellitesaccording to the most recent data published by orbital monitoring firms. The difference is not only due to the number of launches, but also to the mode of production. According to an economic analysis published in 2025the estimated manufacturing cost of OneWeb satellites is around $14,000 per kilo, compared to approximately $2,500 per kilo for Starlink satellites. These figures reflect a gap that has more to do with the integration model than with the technology itself. The estimated manufacturing cost of OneWeb satellites is around $14,000 per kilo, compared to approximately $2,500 per kilo for Starlink satellites. The reaction of the sector did not take long to arrive. With the advancement of Starlink, both companies and public institutions Similar projects began to be considered based on constellations with a high number of satellites and sustained deployments. Amazon launched KuiperEutelsat and OneWeb reinforced their alliance to maintain presence in the market and the European Union approved the IRIS2 program with institutional support.China is also working on its own large systems. It is not just about competing in numbers, but about accepting that scale and replacement capacity are part of the new spatial model. When the satellite becomes a replicable product, the way of planning its presence in orbit also changes. It is no longer about launching a mission and hoping it works for as long as possible, but rather about building a structure that can grow, modernize and replace units regularly. The satellite becomes a component of a network, not the center of the mission. This logic favors models based on scalability and continuous replacement, similar to those of other technological infrastructures. Space stops being a destination and becomes a platform. SpaceX demonstrated that the cost of the launch was not a technical limit, but rather a model one. Now it is trying to apply that same logic to satellites, with an approach based on scale, continuous manufacturing and integration with its own launch systems. The result is not only a larger constellation, but a different way of understanding what it means. operate in orbit. The question is no longer how much it costs to get to space, but who can … Read more

In a gesture of incalculable Frenchness, France has named the first rocket launched from its borders “Baguette One”

November 19, 2025 by usatoday24

The Spanish Miura 1 rocket took off from southern Spain. He french rocket Baguette One will do the same next year from the south of France. It’s not a joke. It is the real name of the next bet of the European New Space. And it is very serious: the French company HyPrSpace has just closed an agreement to launch an experiment on board, confirming that the launch will take place from mainland France: something unprecedented in the civil sector. Traditionally, France launches its missions from the Kourou Spaceport in French Guiana. However, the Baguette One will take off from Europe. The suborbital rocket, about 10 meters high (slightly lower than the Miura 1), will take off from the Biscarrosse missile testing center, in the Landes department, thanks to an agreement with the French Directorate General of Armaments. You already have a client. The little rocket will not go empty. HyPrSpace has signed a memorandum of understanding with ATMOS Space Cargo to launch a demonstration mission. The German space logistics company will take advantage of the suborbital flight to test its Phoenix-2 reentry capsule. The French startup HyPrSpace, based in Bordeaux, is developing Baguette One as a preliminary step to validate the technologies of its future commercial rocket Orbital Baguette One. The project has just closed a financing round of 21 million euros from private funds. They are added to the 35 million that HyPrSpace had secured from the France 2030 public plan. Orbital Baguette One. The OB-1 will follow the Baguette One with a first launch scheduled for the end of 2027. This microlauncher promises to put between 200 and 250 kg into orbit with low prices as its main attraction. Instead of using pure liquid or solid fuel engines, HyPrSpace (short for Hybrid Propulsion for Space) will use a mixture: solid fuel made from recycled plastic and liquid oxygen as an oxidizer. The advantage of this architecture is that it eliminates turbopumps, one of the most expensive and complex pieces of aerospace engineering, which reduces the cost of the launcher by 40%. The disadvantage is that they are less versatile engines and without the possibility of reuse, something that PLD Space does plan for future versions of the Miura 5. Image | HyPrSpace In Xataka | The only photo you need to understand the scale of what Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company, has just done

LG wanted to be different from all the others with its mobile phones. That was precisely what condemned it: Crossover 1×29

November 19, 2025 by usatoday24

It’s been more than four years since LG closed its mobile divisiona decision that made financial sense—they kept losing money—but that left some users, including myself, shaken. And it is that LG had its particular golden era in this segment. At the beginning of the 2010s, the company was an absolute benchmark: it was not in vain that Google chose it two years in a row to develop and manufacture the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5. But LG also had, as we say, some fantastic years after launching the LG G2a terminal that seemed almost gigantic to us with its 5.2 inches and that posed an ambitious and notable bet. Especially because among other things it “hid” the physical buttons and placed them behind the screen. He LG G3 It was also going in the right direction, but from there the stumbles and that erratic line of movement began. some terminals that were unpredictable: The firm surprised us every year with different decisions that seemed more intended to attract attention and cause a “wow” effect than to solve real problems. This is what we saw in that synthetic leather back cover of the LG G4 and especially in that modular design of the LG G5 that did not finish curdling. Along the way, other ranges such as the V were left behind and of course their attempts to sell their mid-ranges, which had a very difficult time due to the push of Samsung and Chinese manufacturers. Since then, things continued not to go well with their terminals. LG was still brave and originalbut time and time again the market responded with indifference: the world seemed to want more “boring” mobile phones. Crazy models like the LG Wing ended up condemning a company that ended up surrendering to the evidence to focus on other divisions that are an absolute success, such as the one in charge of develop OLED panels for their TVs but also for various manufacturers such as Apple. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | 15 brave LG phones that tried to change the world (and failed)

The opening of Shein in Paris should have been a triumph. It has ended up causing the biggest slowdown for the Chinese giant in Europe

November 18, 2025 by usatoday24

Days after Shein’s controversial arrival at the historic BHV Marais in Paris —an opening as massive as it is controversial—, the story takes a turn that no one in the Chinese company expected. France has decided to postpone the opening of the rest of the Shein stores scheduled for November and December, a slowdown that reveals the extent to which the physical commitment of the ultra-fast fashion giant is shaking the sector and French politics. In a nutshell. The SGM group, owner of BHV, announced that the planned openings in Dijon, Reims, Grenoble, Angers and Limoges are postponed indefinitely. The inaugurations were to start on November 18 and extend until the beginning of December, but according to BFMTVSGM prefers to postpone them “a few days or a few weeks.” Today, the only operational Shein store in the country is the one in Paris, open November 5. A postponement that accumulates reasons. The delay does not respond to a single factor: it is a cocktail of commercial problems, reputational crisis, political pressure and regulatory turbulence. First, the Paris store disappointed its own customers. As reported days later by Le Mondedespite the more than 50,000 visitors on the first day, the result was frustrating: no men’s clothing, no children’s fashion, no large sizes, nor the ultra-low prices usual on the web. Added to this was insufficient space to manage the influx. But the hardest blow, according to the French media, did not come from the clients, but from the brands that have decided to leave BHV after the arrival of Shein and due to accumulated non-payments. Dior, Chanel, Guerlain and Lancôme – four pillars of French perfumery – leave the department store, along with more than 20 fashion and home brands. The departure comes at the worst possible time: the Christmas campaign, the month in which BHV rebalances its accounts. Furthermore, the image crisis is amplified by the breakup between SGM and Galeries Lafayette. According to Fashion Networkthe French chain has ended its agreement with SGM to avoid any link with Shein, which implies that all these centers will be called BHV, not Galeries Lafayette. Expansion meets politics. Shein’s arrival has unleashed unprecedented municipal rejection. From Liberation have pointed out that several mayors – Dijon, Reims, Grenoble, Angers and Limoges – are explicitly opposed to the implementation. Specifically, in Grenoble, Mayor Éric Piolle even asked to suspend opening until all products were legally verified. And the straw that broke the camel’s back. As different media have describedthe French Government discovered child-like sex dolls, prohibited weapons and other illicit products on the platform. This activated a process of temporary suspension of the marketplace, exhaustive customs controls and a judicial procedure that is still open. “The postponement is temporary.” Frédéric Merlin, president of SGM, insisted: in an interview for BFMTV. In it, he explained that the group needs to adapt the offer, adjust the pricing policy, gain space in regional stores and work on “more personalized orders.” But, as Le Monde recallsits management simultaneously faces non-payments to suppliers and the largest brand flight that BHV has experienced in decades. For its part, Shein maintains a different discourse. According to Reutersthe company says the Paris store has been “a great success.” He accepts that he must adjust prices and improve the experience, but he assures that for now his priority is to optimize that first physical point before opening the following ones. However, it does not offer new dates. Meanwhile, the company will have to face a key event: a mandatory appearance at the National Assembly and a court hearing on November 26, the same day on which the Paris court must examine the request to suspend the platform. In parallel, as the French media highlightsthe European Union has agreed to advance the application of taxes on small imported packages to 2026 – an essential pillar of Shein’s logistics model –, further increasing the pressure. Downshifting. France has become the first European country to put a real brake on Shein’s physical expansion. The openings have been postponed “a few days or weeks,” but the context—investigations, protests, brand leaks and regulatory pressures—suggests that the pause could last longer than SGM and Shein would like to admit. The question now is whether Shein will manage to adapt to a market that demands transparency, legality and social commitments or if the Paris store will be remembered as the beginning of the biggest clash between ultra-fast fashion and a country that, for the first time, has decided to put a stop to its advance. Image | FreePik and DMCGN Xataka | Shein has opened its first store in Europe in Paris. Paris has reacted as always: staging a revolt

NVIDIA, Microsoft and Anthropic have signed a new multi-million dollar agreement

November 18, 2025 by usatoday24

Microsoft, NVIDIA and Anthropic have announced recently a series of strategic alliances that redistribute the map of power in the generative AI race. Anthropic will deploy its Claude models in Azure, Microsoft’s cloud, while committing to purchase $30 billion in computing capacity and contract additional capacity of up to one gigawatt. For their part, NVIDIA and Microsoft will invest up to 10,000 and 5,000 million dollars respectively in the startup. The triangular pact, in figures. Anthropic will have access for the first time to Microsoft Foundry, where its most advanced models (Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Opus 4.1 and Claude Haiku 4.5) will be available to Azure enterprise customers. With this, Claude becomes the only advanced model present in the three main cloud services in the world. Additionally, Microsoft promise maintain the integration of Claude into its Copilot family, including GitHub Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and Copilot Studio. In parallel, NVIDIA and Anthropic establish their first collaboration of such caliber. To do this, they will work together in design and engineering to optimize the Claude models on future NVIDIA architectures, starting with systems Grace Blackwell and Vera Rubin. Microsoft looks for alternatives to OpenAI. This move comes just weeks after OpenAI will complete its restructuring towards a for-profit model and will renew its agreement with Microsoft. Although Microsoft maintains a 27% stake in OpenAI valued at about $135 billion, the new terms of the deal have relaxed some key elements of its exclusivity. And OpenAI can now collaborate with third parties and release open source models, while Microsoft no longer has the right to try to be its sole computing provider. According to The Vergethese changes in the relationship with OpenAI have precisely allowed Microsoft to close this pact with Anthropic. In fact, Microsoft had already been betting on Claude in some of its services, for example, in Visual Code, prioritizing Claude over GPT-5 in your model selector. It also recently added Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4.1 to Microsoft 365 Copilot. Circular financing: money that comes back. As is customary in these AI macro-agreements, a clear circular financing dynamic. Microsoft and NVIDIA pump capital into Anthropic, which in turn commits to spending tens of billions on infrastructure provided by those same companies. In essence, some of the money invested returns as revenue from cloud computing services and specialized hardware. It is not a new phenomenon: in fact, Anthropic already has similar agreements with Amazon, which has invested 8 billion dollars and continues to be its main infrastructure provider, and with Google, which in recent weeks announced a pact to provide up to one million TPUs to the startup. These types of cross-investments have become the norm in the generative AI ecosystem, creating almost symbiotic relationships between companies to meet their computing and infrastructure needs. one gigawatt. Building a data center with that capacity could cost around $50 billion, according to industry estimateswith some 35 billion dedicated exclusively to AI chips. Although the figure pales compared to OpenAI’s Stargate project, which aspires to 500,000 million dollars In investing, Anthropic’s approach seems more pragmatic and execution-focused. The company led by Dario Amodei has gained ground in the business market with less media noise but with solid results. And its annualized revenue rate now reaches $7 billion, although like the rest of the AI startups it continues to spend much more than it earns. Diversification. What is really relevant about this agreement is that it confirms a trend: that large technology companies are no longer betting everything on a single card in AI. Microsoft, which has invested billions in OpenAI since 2019 and made it the flagship of its AI strategy, is now expanding its portfolio with Anthropic. For its part, Anthropic demonstrates its ability to maintain multiple alliances without compromising its independence. It is the sensible option and the one that minimizes risks. Cover image | Microsoft In Xataka | Tim Cook’s end at Apple is approaching

the surprising equipment of the new $500 million superyacht from the founder of Valve

November 18, 2025 by usatoday24

The founder of Valve, Gabe Newell, in addition to being a video game enthusiasthas also proven to be a true sea enthusiast. In fact, his enthusiasm for sailing reaches such a point that not only has he just launched a new superyacht valued at more than 500 million dollars, but he has even has been purchased the company that manufactured it. Gabe Newell is one of the most active millionaires when it comes to superyachts. With a fortune estimated at about 11 billion dollarsthe video game magnate has a small flotilla of yachts, although not all of them are used for recreational boating, but are part of the marine research organization ink fish. Newell’s new yacht However, the Valve co-founder’s new yacht has been designed in great detail for the millionaire’s use and enjoyment. The new acquisition used the internal code Y722, but upon leaving the dry dock it has been registered as Leviathan.

That CATL is going to employ 2,000 people in Zaragoza is good news. The problem is that they are going to be brought from China

November 18, 2025 by usatoday24

“There are Chinese manufacturers in Europe that assemble cars with Chinese components and Chinese personnel. It happens in Spain and Hungary, and it is not right.” This is the statement of Stéphane SéjournéVice President of Prosperity and Industrial Strategy of the European Commission, in light of the way some Chinese manufacturers proceed to avoid tariffs on electric car that comes from China. Evidence that Europe is not happy with the “removable” kits from Chinese manufacturers. There are companies that have a magnifying glass on their projects in Spain. CATL, with its 4.1 billion euro plant, is one of them. Now, his vice president has justified why its 2,000 employees will be Chinese. Removable kits. The tariffs came into effect at the end of last year for those electric cars not only from Chinese manufacturers, but that are manufactured in China. The Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai either Europeans would also be included. What Europe seeks with these tariffs is to persuade manufacturers to establish themselves in the EU and create value in the points where they install themselves. Well: shortly after the tariffs began to be applied, the news broke that there were Chinese companies that were assembling their cars in Europe, yes, but they were not manufacturing them here. How did they do it? With removable kits. All work on key parts of the vehicle is done in China, where practically the entire car is assembled and then disassembled and the parts sent to the destination countries. They do it without wheels or steering wheel, but with all the critical parts, which are reassembled in factories in other countries. Europe did not look favorably on this measure and already raised an eyebrow, but more recently, both Séjourné and other European manufacturers –Josep María Recasens, president of Renault Spain– they raised the hare. Recasens directly stated that Chinese manufacturers are making “four plates with wheels.” Figueruelas Plant. There are plants that plan to change their way of acting in the short term, but what some point out is that this harms the area in which these companies are located. SEAT, for example, gives work to 15,000 people in Martorell, generating thousands of indirect jobs around it. And it is common: the manufacturer employs directly, but also generates work in the surrounding areas because logistics, auxiliary industries and local suppliers come into play. Another key point in this controversy is the factory that CATL wants to build in Zaragoza. It will be the result of a joint venture between CATL and Stellantis, with a investment of 4.1 billion euros which will be used to create LFP batteries. It is scheduled to begin production in 2026 and is expected to generate 3,000 direct jobs. The problem is that 2,000 of those workers They will come directly from China. CATL’s position. That would not meet the European Union’s desire to create wealth directly on the land on which they are established, but Meng Xiangfeng, vice president of CATL, has spoken out on the matter. It was during the COP30 climate summit held in Brazil where the manager was forceful: “it is not that we are not willing to hire local workers, it is that we need experienced technicians to build and perfect the production lines and start up the equipment.” According to Meng, they are not seeking to replace local employment, but rather to start the plant in the best possible way by requiring specialized knowledge. “During this process, we will train local workers so that they can gradually take over the operation,” assured. “You can’t come to Europe and build four plates with wheels and seats with little added value. We didn’t do it like that when we went to China, they shouldn’t do it when they come to Europe” – Josep María Recasens Local wealth. It’s no small feat: CATL is one of the leading companies when it comes to powering new energy vehicles and was one of those on the table during the debacle of the European Northvolt. In addition to Figueruelas, the company has another plant on European soil, in Erfurt, Germany. It was CATL’s first outside of China and the executive assured that the procedure at the Spanish plant will be the same as that already applied on German soil and will be applied at the other European plant in Hungary. Like BYD. and technology transfer. Once the plant is at full capacity, it will be possible to assess the extent to which the local wealth sought by the European Commission is created, but in addition to that issue, the issue of technology transfer is up in the air. Companies are jealous of their creations, and it is logical, but the president of Renault has a reason for Europe to force Chinese manufacturers to “teach us.” When Western manufacturers entered China, the country forced them to partner with local companies to produce on its soil. As a result of that knowledge we have cars like the MG4 Electricbut also the new Renault Twingo made in Shanghai and Japanese Mazda 6e developed by Changan in China. And what is sought is for that knowledge to be shared. As we say, we will see what happens, but Figuerelas will be a complicated case because those 2,000 employees who will come from China will practically double the current census of inhabitants of the municipality. Images | Stellantis In Xataka | “It is playing free trade with a totalitarian State”: three experts give their opinion on tariffs on Chinese electric cars

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